Year: 2019

Main Threats

No major threats in sight. Just be careful near any stream, as many of them are at flood stage.

Summary

We’ll see rain showers move in today, bringing our first measurable rainfall of the new year. That rain will be with us through the day and into the night, tapering off by Thursday morning.

Thursday looks to be a mostly cloudy day but also mostly dry. That will let us dry out a little bit before our next storm system moves in late Thursday night and Friday.  Like today’s system, we’re not looking for anything too heavy, just widespread showers that could be moderate at times. That rain tapers off Friday night.

That sets the stage for a nice weekend! Can you believe we may get a spring-like, beautiful weekend? It certainly looks like that’s what’s going to happen! Enjoy it, folks. All indications are pointing to a very cold and unsettled second half of January that may begin going downhill as soon as the middle of next week…..

This is the temperature outlook for January 12-25. The good news is that warmth is expected to build out west, which will likely slide our way for the beginning of February. Always take long-range outlooks with a grain of salt, though.

Records

On this day in 1904 a very powerful cold front crossed the state of Tennessee. The high temperature in Nashville reached a pleasant and spring-like 59 degrees on January 2nd, before temperatures plunged 46 degrees with the passage of the cold front. That led to a morning low of only 13 degrees the next morning!

On this day in 1961 Hawaii recorded their all-time record low temperature. That was when the summit of Haleakela dropped to 14 degrees. The summit peaks at 10,023 feet and in January averages a high temperature of 45 degrees and a low of 34 degrees. Haleakela forms about 75% of the island of Maui.

This day in 1988 brought an unusual occurrence to the U.S. in the month of January. There was hardly any snow to be found across the entire country. That would dramatically change in just 24 hours. Tune in tomorrow for that story!

Almanac

NOTE: Since we’ve started a new year, everything starts over, including rainfall. This is the first time in many, many months that our “departure from normal” is negative on rainfall. That will change today. 

Record high: 65 (2005)

Record Low: 1 (1977, 2017)

Sunrise: 6:50

Sunset: 4:38

Day Length: 9 hrs 47 mins 28 secs

Day Length tomorrow: 9 hrs 48 mins 10 secs

One Year Ago Today

This time last year we had a high of only 28 degrees, after a morning low of 1 degrees. That tied our record low of 1 set in 1977.

It was a dry day and the strongest wind speed recorded was 8 mph. The skies were fair all day.

News

The NWS Morristown released their annual rainfall map, showing everyone getting more than enough rain last year! The Morristown office covers all of East TN but does not cover Cumberland and Fentress Counties. Our counties are covered by the Nashville office. That is why you will see advisories issued for Morgan and Scott County but not for us. Different offices decide different things sometimes.

All locations in East TN finished the year above average on precipitation, with many of those locations setting records for the all-time wettest year on record.

You all have a great day!

 

The year 2018 will go down as the wettest year on record for the Cumberland Plateau. The NWS Nashville reports that, “A record annual rainfall of 74.88″ was set at Crossville, Tennessee in 2018. This breaks the old record of 74.36″ set in 1973. The average annual rainfall for Crossville is 55.09”. Weather records for Crossville began in 1954.”

Hopefully, we’ll get some more rain soon. We haven’t seen a drop this year! 🙂

Main Threats

No major threats in sight.

Summary

Our new year will feature a cloudy, mild start. I can’t rule out a morning sprinkle but the great majority of the precip has moved out  of the area.

Wednesday will start out cloudy, with only a slight chance for a shower. Our next system will be developing, though, and it will really push in here Wednesday night. Some of the rain could be heavy at times. That rain should taper off by noon Thursday, leaving us with a mostly dry but cloudy Thursday.

As you might imagine, that dry spell will be short-lived, as our next system develops and pushes in for Thursday night. More widespread rainfall is likely and that should taper off as we approach the evening hours of Friday.

You may have noticed that all wintry precip has been removed from the 5-day outlook. The pattern has changed quite a bit over the past 24 hours and it now looks like the systems affecting us this week will bring up too much warm air for us to have to worry about frozen precip. The only thing to keep a bit of an eye on would be Friday night, but I didn’t even put any snowflakes on the outlook for that, seeing how that chance is so small.

January looks to begin on a mild note but a big pattern change is expected to arrive within the next two weeks that will usher in much colder air.

Records

On this day in 1918, the city of Dickson, TN, located just west of Nashville, picked up 15 inches of snow! This is the biggest snowstorm ever recorded for this area. What a way to begin the new year, right?

Flash forward to 1964 and we be up our knees in snow around most of Middle TN. Lawrenceburg had 16 inches, Waynesboro 15.5, Lebanon and Old Hickory each had 10. Snowfall measurements were like that all over Middle TN, though the plateau was mostly spared from this event.

A different kind of record was set on this date in 1927. That is when the Cumberland River at Nashville crested at 56.2 feet! That is a whopping 16 feet above flood stage. This was the Great Flood of 1927. We hadn’t seen anything like this until the catastrophic floods of 2008 hit the area. During the 1927 flood, water reached as far into the city as 3rd Avenue. The river was three miles wide at the height of the flood. Two steamboats floated onto 1st Avenue. Sixty square blocks of the city were under water. Many folks had to navigate the city by rowboat.

Almanac

This data comes from the Crossville Airport. Our weather varies significantly across the plateau and your rainfall total may be much more or less. My rainfall total here at my house in Rinnie topped out at a whopping 79.47 inches for the year! I never thought I’d see an annual rainfall total that high on my rain gauge. Officially and unofficially, 2018 will go down as the wettest year on record for the Cumberland Plateau.

One Year Ago Today

The new year started out with a morning low of around seven degrees! We only climbed to around 16 for a high that day. This was one of the coldest starts to a new year in history for Tn and many cities established records for coldest New Year on record. Skies were fair to mostly cloudy all day.

You all have a great start to your New Year!